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Equipment Guidance

In Cameroon, the hunting season starts on December 1. It is the coldest time of the year (the night time temperature may fall to 4-5 degrees Celsius while the daytime temperature may rise as high as 25-28 degrees). Because you will often have to depart when it’s still dark, before the sunrise (which is the coldest time of the day) and to come back around midday, equipment requirements are no-nonsense. In March, the nighttime temperature may increase to 20 degrees, and by day it may easily rise above 40 degrees in the shade. The humidity also drops day by day.

Let’s discuss each element in detail

1) Underwear. 100% synthetic fabric is a must with good moisture-wicking properties. Long trunks (not swim briefs and definitely not thongs) should be worn. Long boxer trunks will protect your inner thighs from chafing issues, especially if you have some extra pounds. No natural fiber trunks — even if they are the best you could get them and the ads praise them. Our choice is SITKA Core Silk Weight Boxer, and you’ve got to have no less than three pairs of them with you. Your underwear has to be changed after each time you go outside, even if it’s just for a short time.

2) Pants. These have to be really durable (you will hardly find any thorny plants in Cameroon, but you will definitely do a lot of crawling). Our choice is SITKA Ascent Pant, because apart from their phenomenal durability (my Ascent has no holes or tears whatsoever after three seasons of daily wear and washing), they have one more amazing feature — a silicone strip on the belt. Just a small detail, but it helps to keep your shirt or a roll neck in place as if it’s glued. And these pants also have several pockets: you will certainly need more than two!

3) T-shirt. Frankly speaking, it’s optional. But we STRONGLY recommend that a person who comes from a middle climate zone does NOT wear short-sleeved shirts in the equatorial zone. The sunlight is very intense here and your skin will get burnt within an hour. But if there is a need for a t-shirt, we recommend Sitka Core Crew SS. One or two of those will do the trick.

4) Sweatshirt. There are three options:

А. Sitka Core Hoody — this one has a convenient zipper on the neck (which allows for more airflow) and a hood. This is very good for screening your neck from the sun.

В. Sitka Core Crew — the simplest of the options. It has no zipper on the neck.

С. Sitka Core Zip-T — the best option, a blend of convenient features of the two previous pieces.

What should you choose? Well, it’s a matter of taste. In any case, you’ve got to have no less than two sweatshirts with you. Three sweatshirts is even better.

5) Jacket. Sitka Ascent Jacket and Sitka Jetstream Jacket. You can wear both of them at once on a December morning (as well as for a night hide). In March, the Ascent piece will be enough ( since even at night the temperatures won’t drop lower than +20 C). The reason for choosing the two jackets is personal preference, and the Jetstream jacket can be easily replaced by a Jetstream or a Kelvin vest.

6) Headwear. You should take a warm hat with you (especially in the beginning of the season), for example one from the Jetstream collection — to wear in the mornings or during the late nights. It gets a little bit more complicated when it comes to the daytime. A Sitka Cap baseball cap, wonderful in every way (it allows for airflow, it is light and it’s convenient too), may not be the best choice for the equatorial climate zone because it doesn’t screen your neck or your ears from the sunlight. This is why one has to use a bucket hat from some other manufacturer, although we are hoping that things will not stay like this for a long time (Sitka does have to make its own bucket hat someday, doesn’t it?).

7) Gloves. These are an important detail of your equipment. First of all, your hands are the most mobile parts of your body and the brightest ones too. And while all the other body parts successfully blend with the environment thanks to Optifadе, your hands can be easily seen by the animals at a long distance. Second, gloves protect your hands from the sunlight (and that’s important, taking into account the area where exactly we are trying to hunt). Third, they offer protection from insect bites. Fourth, they keep you warm both in the mornings and at night. Fifth, crawling around with your gloves on (even if they are quite thin) is much more comfortable than without them (and you will do that much more often than you can imagine). Sixth, they offer protection from cuts caused by grass or bamboo (there are plenty of those, and when you hunt for a buffalo, you have to spend a lot of time in the thickets, which means that if you don’t wear gloves, your hands will be cut raw).

Our choice is the Core Glove. It has the most reasonable combination of the air-proof and steam-proof qualities with lightness and durability. You have to take no less than two pairs with you. If you plan to hunt in December or early in January, we recommend that you get a warmer option, for example, the Jetstream Glove.

8) Backpack. When in Africa, a hunter rarely carries much weight. As a rule, there is a whole staff of people who are supposed to do that. But we strongly recommend that our clients have an individual hydration pack. These are a great help while hunting for eland or elephant, when 90 your success depends on how long a distance a hunter can go and the way he does that.

The best choice for keeping your hydration pack and a couple of small things in, is Sitka Ascent 10 Pack. It is light, and the suspension system is designed so that it allows for airflow. It won’t hinder your movements when you are carrying your rifle on a shoulder strap.

A couple of words about color. Our personal preference is the Open Country pattern, but in fact, the forest pattern is fine. Nearly all the animals hunted in Africa are color-blind, and see the world in shades of grey. The most important thing the Optifade camo offers you is blurring your body and making it blend with the environment — and it does it perfectly, no matter what color option you choose.

The results of 2012-2013 season

The success of every safari depends first of all on quantity and quality of the trophies. During 2012-2013 season, and not for the first time, our clients return home after a 100% lucky hunting. The trophies of elephant, lion, roan and even Lord Derby Eland – this is the result of constant work of our hunters.

Here is the result of the last season: 5 buffalos, 6 Defassa waterbucks, 6 hartebeasts, 2 elands, a lion, 3 elephants, 2 roans and a jackal. There also duikers, Buffon kobs, oribis, reedbucks, serval and other trophies.

Africam Safaris conducts a great work to sustain the quantity of game animals in its lands so that the hunters could be fully satisfied by safari and their trophies.

Alexey, Mark and Alexander, the hunters from Moscow, have arrived to the “Africam Safaris” camp for a serious game: elephant, Lord Derby eland and buffalo. And if your wish something and are sure in the success, you will get a desired result. Here it is:

Our hunter Igor has a remarkable safari with Africam Safaris. This is his 10-th safari- a number to celebrate. The taste for adventure, love for wildlife, luck and determination in hunting – all that made Igor return to Africa again and again. His travels started in Cameroon and continued in Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Burkina Faso. Igor’s trophy collection was replenished yearly. And he chose to come to Cameroon again.A little more than a week spent in Africam Safaris camp, and our hunter can proudly show his new trophies:

Lord Derby Eland

buffalo

waterbuck Defassa

Buffon cob

Grimm’s duiker

red-flanked duiker.

While resting between the hunts Igor used to take fishing gear and go fishing with the same passion, so he managed to catch such worthy fishes: